ROC Ripples – 04.09.14

ROC Ripples – 04.09.14

Exciting news!

Read all the way to the bottom to learn about a CHALLENGE made to the ROC.

We hosted our ROC ‘N Spring event on Sunday evening, April 6th and had over 100 attendees. The Elm Street Bakery was a wonderful venue; they provided food and beer. Reeds Liquor store in East Aurora provided wine. Musician Doug Yeomans was on board for the full 4 hours! Thanks also to Martyn Printing for their donation of all of our printed material.

We still have some East Aurora icon posters designed by Geoff Vosseller available. Look for them at Vidler’s and other spots in the Village. These are great for EA natives living elsewhere.

We shared stories about the child who has had to go to the creek to get water to flush the family’s toilet and the family living in a trailer where the toilet flushed onto the ground below making the children ill. What must it be like to live in these conditions? How can we break the cycle?

We also heard about the families wishing to take advantage of public services, but having to spend a day to get to the city by bus only to find out that they didn’t have the correct paperwork or even the right office and had to make the trip multiple times before accessing services.

We then shared the vision of a building right on our doorstep that will house all kinds of services in a caring environment. The building plans are below. This is the vision for the ROC.

During the event several professionals offered help with our health services program, with legal advice, specialized services for our children and so much more. The board and volunteers were gratified to receive the sense of support from all in attendance.

The best part was to experience so many others getting excited about our work. This was more than a ripple. and we need to ride the wave.

We also were given a challenge. We have an offer of $20,000 if we can match it. It was our intent to use ROC Ripples primarily as an informational tool but this challenge is something we needed to communicate as broadly as possible.

So, if you like what the ROC is doing and can help us meet this challenge, please …

You can send a check to us at PO Box 447, East Aurora, NY or donate at our web site (http://theroc.co), but Paypal will take a cut.

And thank you in advance.

Thanks to Christye Peterson, Jane Vosseller and Vicki Feine for putting together a great event.

Three generations of Dusels enjoy the camaraderie.

Attendees learn about the realities of rural poverty and how the ROC is changing lives.

Jay DePerno of the Elm Street Bakery prepares to feed the over 100 in attendance.